We celebrated my fiancé's birthday this week, and I continued my tradition of baking him something special to mark the occasion. The first year we were dating I made him this incredible yellow birthday cake with chocolate ganache frosting from Hummingbird High. After a brownie/blondie interlude last year, Doug and I decided to return to a classic yellow cake and chocolate icing (the decision making process is collaborative, which I like).

I paired this light and fluffy yellow cake with THE Chocolate Frosting, again from Hummingbird High, which is one of my absolute favorite baking blogs and features incredibly creative recipes and beautiful photos. This frosting is no joke. As promised, it is so good you want to lick it off of the bowl, spoon, anything you can get your hands on.

Mise en place for the cakes. I often use raw turbinado sugar in place of typical granulated sugar, as I did here.

Unsweetened cocoa goodness. I always mix the frosting while waiting for the cake to cool, which helps me be patient.